Good morning, everyone. I just
want to say, first off, that we would like everyone to pray
for Gary Holback. He's real sick with the virus,
and he's gone to the emergency room today because of just dehydration
from it, and continue to pray for Jerry Hansen. She's still
in the hospital and expected to come home next week. but she's
still dealing with it. And so let's pray for her and
for everybody that's dealing with it right now. And thank
the Lord for all of His mercies in all of this. And let's look
at Luke chapter 24 this morning, verse 27. Luke 24, 27. And beginning
at Moses, and all the prophets he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Our title is from those last two words of that verse concerning
himself. We have to remember verse 26
in order to get in our mind the sort of the series of events
here and to Expound on verse 27, we have to certainly remember
verse 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and
to enter into his glory? So get in your mind the sort
of the sequence of events in this chapter and it'll help us
with our beginning verse this morning on verse 27. These disciples
were walking along the road to Emmaus, and the Lord Jesus Christ
joined himself to them on that road, and they were talking about,
and sad, they were sad about things that had happened, about
how Christ had been arrested and tortured and crucified, and
they were perplexed about his body not being found at the tomb. They were sad about those things,
and the Lord joined Himself to them and asked them, what are
you talking about that's making you so sad? And He let them express
the grief of their hearts to Him, and they recounted to Him
the events that they were talking about, about Him being crucified
and being gone from the tomb. And then He gently rebukes them
in verse 26, And in verse 25, he calls them
foolish, in verse 25, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets had spoken. What the prophets have spoken,
of course, is recorded in the word of God. That's how we know
what the prophets have spoken is because it's recorded in the
scriptures. And so he opened unto them the
scriptures and reminded them what God had said, what God had
written. by his prophets in his word. And the description of
what is in his word, the description of the scriptures that he gives,
what he showed them is these two words, concerning himself. The word of God concerns himself. It concerns Christ Jesus. And
so in order to know what they should have known, well, they
were fools for not knowing. Just to put it plainly, he said,
you're fools. to not know this and to be sad because of your ignorance. But to know what they were fools
for not knowing concerning how that Christ ought to have suffered
and to enter into his glory, you would only know all that
by the scriptures. That's why he opened the scriptures
unto them and showed them in the scriptures the things concerning
himself. And it's not that they had never
read or heard these things. He didn't say you fools for not
reading or hearing the word of God or not knowing about these
things. He didn't say that. He said, oh fools and slow of
heart to believe it. There's a difference. Like us
with so many things, we know it in our head. We have intellectual
knowledge of things concerning God and his gospel and the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he means to us, but we're slow of heart.
to believe it, to lay hold of it, to claim it, to rest. To lay hold of Him and experience
the rest that is in Christ Jesus and His precious blood. This
is why we pray as the disciples did in Luke 17, Lord, increase
our faith. Because we need more faith, we
all do. This is why like the man in Mark
9 24, we cannot say, Lord, I believe without saying help. Lord, I
believe, help, because I don't believe. Remember what He said
to them when He calmed the winds and the waves. He said, how is
it that you have no faith? Our flesh has no faith. And when
we walk and act in the flesh, then we have no comfort. We're
going to be sad. We're going to be distressed. We're not going
to see Christ and believe in our hearts and lay hold of Him
in our hearts and be comforted and rest in Him. These who had
been eyewitnesses of him, they had witnessed all these things
happen. They had heard him tell them
that they were gonna happen, and then they happened, and they
witnessed all this. They were slow of heart to believe,
and are we quick to believe? The Lord gives more faith to
some than he does others, but I doubt if a believer exists
who does not want and need more. Lord, increase our faith. Faith is what unites us to Christ. Faith is what lays hold of the
Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and trusts Him and experience
His rest and comfort and the peace that comes with His righteousness
and blood and power. It's what unites us to Christ
and so more faith means more peace. More faith means more
rest. More faith means more understanding. And faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. If he's gonna increase our faith,
we know how he'll do that, by the gospel. More faith means
more of what is described in Hebrews 6-9 as the things that
accompany salvation. But I'm thankful for this. More
faith does not mean more salvation. I'm as saved right now as I'm
ever gonna be. Though I be slow of heart to
believe, if God has given me faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that I do indeed believe on him, though I be slow and weak and
foolish, I cannot be more saved than I am right now in him. Ephesians
2.8, for by grace are you saved through faith. and that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God. That's why they said, Lord,
give us more faith. It's his to give. And may we
say that, may that be the prayer of our hearts. Lord, increase
our faith that we might trust you more and love you more and
lay hold of you more and more in our hearts. Now the Lord,
though he's standing right there with them, and he could have
showed them his glory, he could have shined forth like he did
on the Mount of Transfiguration. He could have given them a vision
that they would have never gotten over, but what he did instead
was refer them to the scriptures. There's God's son himself. And
he referred them though to the scriptures that we have before
us today. To show them, to impress upon
them, convince them that it was right and necessary that he should
suffer and that they shouldn't be sad about that, but rejoice
and that he must be glorified He referred them to the scriptures,
verse 27. This is a great blessing because
we don't have the Lord himself before us here this morning,
visibly. He's here with us, but we don't
see him visible. We don't get visions or signs
and wonders, but that's not how the Lord reveals himself anyway.
If we're gonna see him this morning and know him and lay hold of
him and believe on him and rest in him, we're gonna do it the
same way they did, by the scriptures. He referred them to the word
of God. That's how he shows us what we need to know. That's how he gives us saving
knowledge of himself, not by a vision. He doesn't do that
by some kind of a vision or an event, a sign or a wonder. He
does it by revealing himself. That's how he makes us not sad
anymore. In the word of God, he reveals himself in the gospel
and that we do have before us this morning. Thank God for his holy word because
Christ is revealed in his scriptures in so much that they are able
by God's design and grace and power to make us wise unto salvation
in Christ Jesus. Our worship services are simply
us getting together and opening the scriptures and asking him
to open our understanding that we might understand the scriptures,
because they concern himself, seeing in the gospel the necessity
and glory of his sufferings. May he show us that this morning.
his death and his resurrection, his glory. He said, ought not
Christ to have suffered and to be glorified? When he was going
to the cross, he said, now is the son of man glorified, when
Judas betrayed him. And of course, now that he's
given himself an offering for the sins of his people and ascended
to his throne, he's in everlasting glory, making all of his enemies
his footstool. and he's on the throne of everlasting
power and glory right now, having conquered every enemy and saved us from our sins. The
reason at the end of this chapter we find his disciples rejoicing
and worshiping instead of sad and miserable as they are at
the beginning is because the good news of Christ crucified
is all of our hope, all of our salvation and all of our delight.
We rejoice in the holy truth of scriptures that when the Lord
Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures,
He redeemed everyone for whom He died. Christ crucified is
our hope. Not Christ crucified and what
I do with that, or how I deal with that, or my reaction to
that. Christ and Him crucified is my hope. We rejoice to be
able to say, as Paul did in Romans chapter eight, I'm not chargeable
with any sin by anybody, simply because it is Christ that died. Not because I did something for
him, but because he did everything for me. The scriptures are clear. The scriptures, he opened the
scriptures under them. The scriptures are clear. Don't
tell me what God meant by what he said. Just tell me what God
said. The scriptures are Christ. Romans
1, 1, Paul began the great book of Romans, the letter to the
Roman church. This way, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God, which he had promised to for by his prophets in the
holy scriptures. concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the
flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
Paul called the gospel what Christ, how Christ described the scriptures,
because that is what it is. It's that which concerns him. The scriptures are how God saves
sinners. Second Timothy 3.14, but continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a
child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. That's how the scriptures give
us, he called them fools. You want to not be a fool in
this way? wise unto salvation, the scriptures. He showed them
himself in the scriptures. And they were wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 28 in our text,
it says, they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went.
And he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained
him, saying, abide with us. For it is toward evening, and
the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with
them. Now, if the Lord Jesus went in to tarry with them, then
that's what he was gonna do all along. We know that. He didn't
change his mind. God doesn't change his mind. So why did he make it so he was
going to go on and leave them and cause them to constrain him? I believe he still does that.
He still does this. He will not let us take for granted
his presence and his favor. Oh, may we never, ever do so. He does not have to meet with
us. He does not have to bless us. He does not have to expound
unto us the scriptures. You may just hear a man this
morning, and if that's all you hear, it'll be worse than a waste
of time. He doesn't have to reveal himself
to us. But if he wants to, clearly he can. Our text tells us that,
and we know that from all the word of God. He's busy running
the universe. But if he wants to stay and visit
with us, he's got time. And so we always pray for it. We must constrain him. We must
constrain him with our prayers and supplications. We say what
they did in our hearts when we pray, Lord, abide with us. Abide
with us. Don't go. We pray often. How
many times have we prayed here in this church? Lord, don't leave
us to ourselves. Stay with us. Continue with us. Don't let us go. Without his
presence in favor, even this holy book won't do us any good.
He's got to come where we are and open unto us the scriptures
and show us the things concerning himself. Lord, come where we
are and stay. Stay with us. Verse 30. And it came to pass as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread. Imagine this now, think about
it. He took bread and broke it and blessed it and broke it and
gave it to them. And their eyes were open. Now
what does that signify? He took bread and broke it. Do
you think that reminded them of something? The first thing
I want you to notice about this passage, though, is something
very precious. At the very last part, it says, their eyes were
opened and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.
He vanished out of their sight. It doesn't say he vanished out
of their presence. They couldn't see him anymore,
but he didn't vanish out of their presence. How in the world do
you know that? Because he's promised all of
his disciples, I will never leave you, never. nor forsake you. The Lord sat down and ate with
them. Think about that for a minute. The Lord of glory sat down and
ate a meal with these disciples. This is one of the most enjoyable
things in this world to do, is to sit down and enjoy a meal
with somebody that you love. Imagine sitting down with the
Son of God. And could you see him now breaking
bread in your mind and giving it to them? Could you see that
without thinking of 1 Corinthians 11, 23? Listen to it. For I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. Paul
wrote to the Corinthian church that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
And after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped,
saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do ye as oft
as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come." Now that's Paul writing to the Corinthian church.
And we see the imagery of the Lord breaking that bread and
handing it to them. And their eyes were open. when
they took that bread from him. But listen to what the Lord said
about this in Luke 22, 14, about this last supper that he had
with his disciples. Luke 22, 14, just a couple of
chapters before our text, in the same context. When the hour
was come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him. And he
said unto them, with desire I have desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God. We know from the book of Revelation
that we're gonna sit down again one day with the Lord of glory. All of us are gonna sit down
with him in his very presence at the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this
and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave
unto them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Likewise, also the cup after supper saying, this cup is the
new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. The Lord sat
down and enjoyed a meal with a couple of fools. I'm glad he
does that. And when he broke that bread
and gave it to them, it was by that that the Lord was pleased
to open their eyes that they might know who he was. When you
see the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll see him in his redemptive character.
You'll see him giving his life a ransom for your soul. But now,
though his identity, had been hidden from them since verse
16. It says that their eyes were holding so that they didn't know
who he was. But now in that simple gesture of breaking bread, signifying
the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself for the sins of his elect,
now they know him. They know who he is. And then
he vanished out of their sight. How interesting. Not their presence,
just their sight. Why do you suppose he did that?
Well, we don't want to speculate about things in the word of God,
but here's what I know. They just thought all this time
that some stranger was preaching the gospel to them, was telling
them all this from the scriptures. They didn't know it was the Lord
of Glory until now. And then when they knew it was
Him, He vanished from their sight. I know this, salvation is by
faith, not by sight. Seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh visibly before them is not salvation. Many did, and
many died in their sins. We don't need to see the Lord
Jesus visibly in person to know him and rejoice in him. In fact,
he said to Thomas, remember, in John 20, 29, Jesus saith unto
him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. So it wasn't his visible presence.
Now listen, if it had just been a stranger on the road, with
them, it would have really not have changed anything. And I'm
not saying that it wasn't a blessing that the Lord himself drew near
unto them and walk with them. It is a blessing. But listen,
if it had been a stranger preaching unto them, he still would have
needed to do that. If anything was gonna be accomplished
by the preaching, he still needs to do that. He's got to draw
near to us when I preach, doesn't he? Yeah, I'm just some stranger,
I'm a nobody from nowhere. But when the word of God goes
forth, the Lord Jesus draws near and speaks to his people and
gives faith and causes rejoicing and worship. He still would have
had to do that if it would have just been some man. Remember
the Ethiopian eunuch, he said, how can I understand what I'm
reading except some man, just some man should teach me, somebody
that God sends. If just some man had been teaching
them from the scriptures, the things concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, he still would have had to reveal himself to them in
the scriptures. like he did in person. It still has to happen. It happens today. It happens
every time he's pleased to bless his gospel. All that he did for
them that day, he does for all of his sheep, whenever and wherever
they meet. He got to open our understanding
this morning, if we're gonna understand anything. No matter
who's speaking, it's gonna be the gospel by his purpose and
power. But he's still got to be there.
He's got to show up. He's got to bless. He's got to
draw near. He's got to empower, reveal himself. He still does
that. When his sheep, when they meet,
when just a man steps up into the pulpit and expounds in all
the scriptures, the things concerning Christ, he draws near. He said
it where two or three are gathered in my name. There I am in the
midst of them. What a precious, precious promise.
That is, he does appear to these same ones again later visibly. Later in this chapter, and he
shows them his hand and his side, his hands and his side. And it was a great time of rejoicing
and worship, but he still does that, and it's faith now that
enables us to really see just as it was then. Think about this. There He stands visibly before
them, showing them His hands and His sight. If He didn't give
them faith, that wouldn't mean anything to them. And He gives
us that same faith. That's how we know Him. The same
way they did. Well, no, they had a vision and
we don't. We both know Him by faith, the faith that He gives
concerning Himself. Without faith, God-given faith
in Christ, all that they saw and heard would have meant nothing
to them, just as it would mean nothing to us right now. If God does not give us faith
in his son, these are written that you might believe. This
is how God gives faith in his son. But they thought about who it was that they had been
talking to all this time. and eating with them, and they
said this, did not our hearts burn within us? Did not our hearts
catch on fire? In verse 20, verse 31, It says, their eyes were open
and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. And they
said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while
he talked with us by the way? And while he opened to us the
scriptures, he still does that too. He still does that. When we know him, it's not because
we see him visibly before us here this morning that we know
him, it's because he gives us faith like he gave them. He opened
their understanding. He opened their hearts like he
did Lydia. He revealed himself to them. And boy, he still catches
hearts on fire, doesn't he? Whoever's preaching, the Lord's
sheep hear his voice. They follow him. And he's the
only one that can catch a heart on fire. May he cause our hearts
to burn this morning and always with worship and love for him.
as he shows us who he is by faith through the preaching of his
gospel. Amen.